Safe Anal Toys – Materials, Size, & Flare

There are 3 ways you can go wrong – and end up with an unsatisfying, uncomfortable or unsafe product when you pick a new anal toy.

Anal toy mistakes to avoid:

1. Buy a jelly / PVC toy that degrades. Not safe for long-term use, PVC, jelly and real-feel plugs exude plasticizers right into your rectum.
2. Buy the wrong size for your body. In most cases you just won’t get to use the toy. But you push too fast, you can tear your hole (a “fissure”) even causing bleeding.
3. Buy a toy without a flared base for anal. These include jewel butt plugs, bullet vibrators and vaginal vibrators like Lovense Lush (the pink tail one). Sometimes people can retrieve these, but other times they get pulled up by the rectum’s vacuum. There are many stories about people who had to obtain professional assistance (ER visit) to get them removed.

PVC dildos are much cheaper than silicone toys of the same size, but are oilier, smell chemical / plasticky and are softened with plasticizers. I had a PVC dildo for about a month 9 years ago because I decided it was too gross, and tossed it. SquarePegToys states why anal toy material matters succinctly:

Please remember that the rectal lining is designed by nature to absorb things and has a direct connection to the bloodstream… Platinum grade silicone [will] avoid toxicity.

–SquarePegToys product pages

That’s how I learned about silicone’s safety – critically, it doesn’t leach plasticizers into the bloodstream like PVC and “vinyl”, et cetera. Here are great plugs to buy to avoid wasting $ on crappy products:

Safe Anal Toys, how-to select

Silicone, stainless steel, glass, ABS

Your rectum + colon are key parts for surviving & thriving, so safe materials in the rear are just smart. The term body-safe sex toy materials means these toys don’t hang onto microbes,

Plus they don’t give off plasticizers and chemicals – they’re non-porous and nontoxic. These body-safe products must be made of:

• Silicone. Platinum cured silicone is the gold standard for dildos and plugs, used by U.S. makers such as SquarePegToys, Mr. Hankey’s Toys, Bad Dragon, (most smaller fantasy dildo-makers who buy Smooth-On), Uberrime and more. Some mass-producers do use platinum silicone like Blush Neo Elite. For vibrators: If bought from a brand that doesn’t confuse thermoplastic with silicone, the material will be durable for the lifetime of the vibrator.
• Stainless steel. 316 stainless is what Njoy uses because it’s both heavier and most resistant to corrosion and acidicity. Cheaper metal toys like imitation Pure Wands are aluminum with a thin stainless coat, probably cheaper 304 stainless. I’m not going to say aluminum is awful, but I wouldn’t wear an aluminum plug all-day.
• ABS plastic is durable. Aneros uses it for their Trident plugs that aren’t silicone-coated. Plastic’s slicker and smoother, also easiest to wipe down and wash.
• Glass. Borosilicate glass can withstand high temps and is shatter-resistant – just don’t throw it on the ground, and if you drop it on a hard surface, you’d want to inspect it carefully and maybe toss it. Glass is super smooth, lighter vs. stainless steel. It’s good option if, for example, you’re wanting prostate play while traveling, but don’t want TSA messing with your Pure Wand.

In contrast, unsafe materials are: PVC, “vinyl,” “jelly,” thermoplastic elastomer or rubber (TPE / TPR) – often called “real feel”👎 or jargon like “Ultraskyn.” Anything soft that’s not silicone is not good, we’ve found: for one, the dildo from the featured image was something my girlfriend “won” as a kink party bingo gift. It’s an “squeeze the balls” ejaculating dildo made of thermoplastic rubber. She used it once then set it in the back of a shelf for a year. I asked her about it recently, while looking for a towel, and we realized it had deep cracks in the shaft and was warped and deformed. Not good, not good. It’s in the trash now.

Flared base = doesn’t get sucked in (smaller toys)

The rectum loves to suck objects in – true if you’re using smaller toys. (It would be almost impossible to get a larger metal dildo or 10″ circumference / 20″ length depth probe lost.)

For any butt plugs in the small to intermediate range, the base of the plug needs to be at least 0.25″ diameter widest than the widest insertable section, preferably 0.5″+ wider.

T-bar bases are best for comfort, since the long part of the bar rests in your crack instead of wider round bases that can chafe the butt cheeks.

Choosing your size for a new butt plug

More on beginner butt plug sizing guidance here. You want to move up no more than 1″ circumference / 0.3″ diameter between one toy and the next one.

Tapered plug kits are also the best for letting you gradually open your ass, or a cone-style stretcher is an all-in-1.

The Oxballs Ergo & Neo Elite silicone dildo in this post’s featured image are not unsafe in themselves – they’re both platinum-cured silicone – but they’re just not the right choice for a first or even second toy. Big anal toys are an experience that you must train to accept safely. Like the Monster Egg Plug, next: Excellent, but not everyone’s into the mega-stretch — you’ll find out over time if it’s something you like:

Good lubricant = avoid stress

Since the rectum doesn’t self-lubricate slickly, using good lube helps you get your plugs in and stay comfortable. Lube shooters / launcher are good tools for pre-slicking the butt instead of lubricant sliding off plugs.

Water-based lubricants are usually acidic, which the rectum is not – that’s not damaging, but glycerin as an ingredient can irritate and cause damage. I recommend against water-based lubricants with glycerin. Here are all the categories of sex lube, from the best for anal to “works well for some applications but isn’t the very longest-lasting”:

1. Oil-based lubricants. Pure virgin coconut oil works well, but needs to be scooped out of its tub. Shea butter mixed works too.
2. Silicone lubricants. Like Uberlube, OxLube, many others. Pure silicone oil is very slick and coats smoothly (dimethicone, dimethiconol, cyclomethicone are silicone oils). These are the hardest to clean off silicone sex toys. Works well with metal, glass, plastic anal toys.
3. Water-based – X-Lube or K-Lube are the longest-lasting. They’re PEO powders you mix as needed, creating a high volume that doesn’t dry out quickly or have the many preservatives other water-based lubricants do – also, neutral pH, so this water-based doesn’t sting upon anal application. See also BD’s Cum Lube if you want premixed PEO lube or Slippery Stuff.
4. Hybrid. Sliquid Silk is longer lasting than Sliquid water-based like Sassy.